Today, President Obama is set to sign the SCHIP bill (State Children’s Health Insurance Program).
As I both debated and discussed in the past, our government has done a terrible job with identifying who NEEDS this coverage versus those who either do not need it or those who are not LEGALLY entitled to it. More on that later.
To refresh your memories, SCHIP is to be funded by increasing the taxes on things like cigarettes. There are a couple of problems here and the Heritage Foundation points out the first one.
Members of Congress seeking to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to cover children from wealthier families are exploring new ways to pay for it. The Senate Finance Committee generally has agreed to reauthorize SCHIP for five years with a $35 billion expansion funded by an increase in the federal tobacco tax by 61 cents per pack.
While a tobacco tax is a politically popular funding source, it has several significant shortcomings:
- A tobacco tax disproportionately burdens low-income Americans, lacks long-term stability, and ultimately results in significant shifting of health care costs onto others.
- With the number of smokers already declining, a tobacco tax would further reduce the number of smokers, thereby eroding the funding source.
- To produce the revenues that Congress needs to fund SCHIP expansion through such a tax would require 22.4 million new smokers by 2017.
So we need MORE smokers to pay for the thing. Got it?
Second problem. Aren’t we paying $75,000,000 in this stimulus bill to STOP people from smoking?
Smoking Cessation.-Cigarette smoking is the leading prevent-
able cause of death in the United States, causing 1 in 5 deaths an-
nually in the United States. Currently, nearly 23 percent of high
school students smoke and every day approximately 1,300 people
under the age of 18 become daily smokers. Annually, cigarette
smoking costs $96,000,000,000 in direct medical costs and an addi-
tional ~0,000,000,000 for the effects of secondhand smoke. The
Committee has included not less than $75,000,000 for smoking ces-
sation activities.
Related:
The “45,000,000 Americans are uninsured” is a line that thrown around quite regularly. In this post, I identified who exactly is being included in that number.
Smokin’ our Way to a Healthier Nation
by Duane on February 4th, 2009 at 12:01 pmAs I both debated and discussed in the past, our government has done a terrible job with identifying who NEEDS this coverage versus those who either do not need it or those who are not LEGALLY entitled to it. More on that later.
To refresh your memories, SCHIP is to be funded by increasing the taxes on things like cigarettes. There are a couple of problems here and the Heritage Foundation points out the first one.
So we need MORE smokers to pay for the thing. Got it?
Second problem. Aren’t we paying $75,000,000 in this stimulus bill to STOP people from smoking?
Related:
The “45,000,000 Americans are uninsured” is a line that thrown around quite regularly. In this post, I identified who exactly is being included in that number.